G.I. Joe (1982 Marvel)

The Joe Team has just come off a successful raid of a Cobra stronghold. In addition to the capture of Cobra personnel, part of the prize catch is a battle robot. On General Flagg’s orders, the robot is transported to the Joes’ headquarters, the Pit. Although Flash has scanned the dismantled robot from top to bottom for any signs of booby traps, he finds nothing.

Hours later, the Joes are through with the scanning. Hawk informs them that he and Scarlett are going ”upstairs” to run a Chaplain’s Assistant’s social tea. The social tea is held in the motor pool above the Pit. The Joes are to maintain their cover at all times. While Hawk and Scarlett run the tea, they decide to have breakfast while the others put away weapons.

Unbeknownst to them, the robot is a ”sleeper” programmed to activate at a pre-set time. Cobra is banking on the robot to reveal to them the exact location of the pit. The dismantled hand moves and makes its way to the computers and seals the Joes in the Pit in the rooms they were in. Clutch, Steeler and Breaker are trapped in the canteen while Stalker, Snake-Eyes and Flash become trapped in the arms room.

The blast door to the canteen is locked by a counterweight, the access to which is opened by Clutch. Steeler sweats off the challenge and lifts the 200-lbs counterweight long enough for Breaker to put in a chair to prop open the door. Meanwhile, finding themselves in the same situation, Stalker and Snake-Eyes sleep to conserve air in the room while Flash uses his laser to burn the door open. After getting out of the canteen, Clutch, Steeler and Breaker have suspected that the robot may have something to do with what’s going on. They are correct, but they didn’t figure that it would have assembled by itself. Cut off from any weaponry, the trio is forced to improvise. Clutch douses the robot with aftershave and lights it on fire.

Meanwhile, the incidents within the Pit have not gone unnoticed to the visitors in the motor pool. Earlier on, they smelled Clutch’s cooking of bacon and eggs and now they are noticing the faint smell of electrical fire. Hawk and Scarlett do their best to convince the visitors that this was nothing to be concerned about.

The trio from the canteen go out again to look for the robot, only to see no sign of it. As they make their way to the training area, it turns out the robot hid in the swimming pool to kill the fire. The Joes quickly retreat into an elevator and manage to reach the garage area where their vehicles are situated, but none are armed, leaving them useless. They hear the robot coming up after them in the elevator shaft. Clutch quickly sends the elevator car down to crash on the robot, which shrugs it off and continues climbing. The Joes push a H.A.L. laser cannon down the shaft but miss the robot as it is smart enough to move through the stairs rather than risk taking further damage from falling objects.

The robot reaches the garage floor and breaks the doors open. Steeler throws silver paint on the robbot’s head and tricks it toward the hydraulic lift well, where it falls to its destruction. The commotion does not go unnoticed in the motor pool above but Hawk refuses to break from their cover and assures the visitors there is nothing out of the ordinary.

Flash, Stalker and Snake-Eyes finally join their comrades to find much of the excitement dwindling down. Although destroyed, the robot refuses to give up. Its detached head sprouts tentacles and tries to climb up the shaft. Flash knocks it down with his laser rifle. The head falls to the ground only to release insect-like robots. Breaker identifies them as mobile transmitters designed by Cobra to locate the Pit. A quick search and destroy neutralizes most of the robot insects save for one.

One of the visitors notice something coming out of the grate on the floor and assumes it’s a real insect. Scarlett reassures the old man and intercepts it by simply crushing it with her foot, ending the threat of the robot. With the time limit for the robot’s mission over, Cobra is forced to head back to base before their helicopter fuel runs out.

Sep 1982

Marvel Comics

5548866

3

Vol. 1

September

1982

1

The Trojan Gambit

Direct

1

United States

$0.60

Bronze Age

English

Magazine

2018-07-02 23:27:56

G.I. Joe

The Trojan Gambit

~$79.80

2025-12-16

2018-07-02 23:27:56